


Here He Stands & Here He'll Stay

by michitariru



Category: Pandora Hearts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-27 05:48:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20755337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/michitariru/pseuds/michitariru
Summary: Watching Break die in front of her after being so close to never seeing it happen was the worst thing Sharon could ever experience.





	Here He Stands & Here He'll Stay

**Author's Note:**

> More '_Break is dying_' angst why did I do this to myself back in 2014. Set in the events of Retrace 92.

> “…Sharon. Liam. I don’t want to die–. I still want to be here."

Sharon’s breath hitched in her throat hearing those words for the very first time from him. Break, who’d spent the last fifteen years talking about his impending death, how he knew it was coming, brushing it off as if it was no big deal, as if losing him would be something that everyone would just get over and move on from. Break had never once vocalized a desire to live beyond the promise he made and was determined to fulfill. 

_Never._

He’d always just accepted it as an inevitability that was irreversible, or couldn’t stand a chance of changing.

> “How awful…of you two…Here I thought…that I would get to go out stylishly…by myself…after struggling…for so long…"

Break went quiet again for a moment, and in that moment Sharon had begun fearing the worst, not knowing what the next few minutes would bring. His shoulder was bleeding, his face had nothing but exhaustion written on his features, and he was leaning so heavily into both Sharon and Liam that Sharon didn’t have a doubt in her mind that he couldn’t stand on his own even if he wanted to. 

> “Yes. Lady…Shel…ly.”

Her mother? The Rainsworth’s brow furrowed hearing that from him, heaven knows what was going through Break’s mind right now. Amidst the occasional tears that were going down her cheeks, all Sharon could do was bury her face in Break’s shoulder and hold him while he rested. She could have Equus take Break back to the manor and he’ll simply stay there until she and her grandmother could return, then she could nurse him back to health again, and– 

The air around them was suddenly still, stagnant; the only sound that could be heard was the breathing of two people of three that were there right now.

Though nothing was actually audible, it was like a faraway breath got stolen from someone nearby and it flew up into the air above them, never to return. And just like that, Break’s entire torso went limp; the arms that were wrapped so tight around his two oldest friends, the hands that clung so tightly to them both as if it was that physical unwillingness to let go to substantiate the words he just spoke, they both dropped down and hung loosely at his side, just stopped from touching the ground because of the two separate arms both holding him up above it. Coral eyes fell slightly to watch his back, waiting for that telltale gentle rise and fall to indicate that his lungs were still drawing in breaths to keep his broken body going.

… …It didn’t come.

As five seconds turned into ten, the tension in Sharon’s own shoulders multiplied by leaps and bounds and the silent sobs began wracking the young woman’s chest. It was her own finger’s turn to dig into the fabric of the jacket he loved so much, that so many of her memories had him wearing; her turn to push herself into him and refuse to let go.

No, he couldn’t die like this. **_He didn’t want to go._**

Though Liam was still holding Break with his own arm, both Sharon’s were tight around the Hatter and finally some noise gave way to the crying she was now doing without abandon.

_“A Rainsworth woman must always be cheerful, graceful and beautiful… no matter what she is going through.”_

> > _And I know my heart is broken.  
You can have it anyway.  
If I could only see you again._

_Cheerful_, what a thing to be at a time like this. Thinking a silent apology to her grandmother for allowing her composure to crumble as it was, Sharon couldn’t bring herself to care about keeping up appearance now. Not at a time like this.

> > __ _My heart has stopped but I'm still breathing.  
Gone numb but still I'm feeling.  
The less I look the more I'm seeing I just lost my hero.___

__  


There was so much in her life he wouldn’t get to see (figuratively). There was so much he wouldn’t get to do with her. He’d never see her succeed Sheryl and take her place as the Rainsworth Duchess, he’d never live to see her break her chain’s contract and begin aging away from the child-like state that she disliked so much, he’d never live to see her properly court someone, get married, have children, grow old and age gracefully, and then pass on herself.

_ _The closest friend whom she’d grown up with, who went from being her beloved Xerx-nii to her very best friend, later to the man she loved with every fibre of her being. Who was in nearly every significant memory stored away in her mind, good and the bad; Break had been there with her._ _

_ _Died in her arms, no words in edgewise, no proper farewell.__

> _I'd give my life for one last time with you.  
I'd give my life for one last time with you._

__  


She didn’t get a chance to tell him that she loved him. That she didn’t just love him, that she was in love with him.

_And she didn’t get a chance to say goodbye._

> _I know heaven must be beautiful right now  
Since they got you, babe.  
Since they took you, babe._

__  



End file.
